


Jade Cricket

by rebecca_selene



Category: Mulan (1998), Pacific Rim (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fusion, Alternate Universe - Pacific Rim Fusion, Canon-Typical Violence, Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, Friendship, Gen, Male-Female Friendship, Pre-Het, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-16
Updated: 2019-01-16
Packaged: 2019-10-10 23:43:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,609
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17435738
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rebecca_selene/pseuds/rebecca_selene
Summary: When Mulan learns the details of how the recruits are expected to power the mechs, she panics. A retelling of Mulan if giant monsters, not Huns, threatened China.





	Jade Cricket

**Author's Note:**

  * For [tielan](https://archiveofourown.org/users/tielan/gifts).



> Guai seems to be a Mandarin equivalent to kaiju.

When the trainees learned about the nature of the machines they were recruited to pilot, Mulan panicked. Her disguise as Ping had been going so well, and she was learning so much more about combat than she’d thought she could when she ran away to take her father’s place. But now, as Chi Fu read off pairs of names, Mulan returned to that same state of anticipation and fear when he’d sat astride his horse outside her family’s home.

“Ping and Yao, piloting Jade Cricket!”

Mulan jolted at her name, then at Yao clapping her soundly on the back. “Let’s go!”

She followed him to the loading area, heart pounding so hard she thought the blood would burst from her veins. She almost hoped it would, saving her from the execution that would no doubt come soon regardless. She could hear Mushu whispering frantically at her neck, but she couldn’t concentrate enough to tell if he was speaking to her or to the cricket her grandmother had given her. Lucky cricket, indeed, Mulan thought with a snort. As soon as she and Yao drifted, as Shang had explained just moments ago, he would be in her thoughts. Read her memories. Know everything about her.

Know her secret.

She and Yao had gotten over their initial animosity and worked well together, enough that it didn’t surprise her they were paired together. But as they ascended to the mech’s command chamber, Mulan forcing a smile at Yao’s excited energy, she felt sure everything she’d built would soon come crashing down around her.

They stepped inside to find the familiar setup they’d been learning solo up until now. She walked to a station with dread.

“Mulan…” Mushu whispered, tone urgent.

“I don’t think a bite in the butt will work this time,” she whispered back as she maneuvered into the heavy suit.

“What was that?” Yao called over from his station on the other side of the chamber, voice muffled by his helmet.

“Nothing.” Mulan snapped on her own helmet, and then Yao’s voice came through loud and clear in the embedded speakers.

“Doesn’t matter, I’ll know when I’m in your head in a minute,” he said jovially. Mulan didn’t respond.

The comm crackled. “Jade Cricket, are you ready?” Shang’s voice asked.

“Ready!” Yao said.

“Ready,” Mulan muttered.

“Initiating drift in three…two…one…”

She closed her eyes and joined minds with Yao.

The sensation jarred and made her dizzy. Her thoughts sifted through her childhood memories and visions she assumed were Yao’s, unfamiliar faces she nonetheless felt love or animosity or jealousy toward. Yao’s emotions, presumably. She watched in horror as, unable to wipe it away, her own painted face floated past, staring out from its reflection in a puddle.

“Yao…” she whispered.

Silence.

Shang’s voice said, “Jade Cricket, status report. We’re not getting any abnormal readings. Are you two drifting?”

Yao cleared his throat, and Mulan felt wetness of her face. This was it; she was going to die, the cause of her family’s shame. “Yes, Captain. We are drift compatible.”

Mulan snapped her eyes open and stared at Yao, who was fiddling with controls. She frowned when she saw his cheeks were red. Her mind reeled, and it took her a moment to realize his thoughts were overwhelming hers. She had been so consumed with her own mind that she hadn’t reached out to his, so sure she wouldn’t be set up in the mech for long once Yao touched her mind.

Instead of censure, disgust, rage, images of turning her in to Shang, Mulan saw in her mind the lake by the training camp, moonlight skittering across the water, and Yao standing naked on the rock. She turned away along with her memory’s self, unsure if the embarrassment she felt was her own or Yao’s.

“Jade Cricket, you are slightly out of alignment,” Shang’s voice informed them. “The first drift takes some getting used to.” Mulan saw the chamber again with her real eyes, blinking in an attempt to separate what she saw in her head with what she saw in front of her. “Continue to stabilize, and report any problems”

Yao still wouldn’t look at her, and she couldn’t get past the memory of the lake to Yao’s current thoughts. “Are you…” she stammered, then stopped. Shang could be listening at any time. She sent her thoughts toward Yao instead, using the drift. _“Will you…please…I…you have to understand—”_

“Don’t.” The word came out sharp into the chamber, and Mulan winced as if physically struck. Yao continued through their drift connection. _“I understand. I’m in your head, I know everything.”_ He finally glanced at her, turned somehow redder, and looked up to the top of the chamber. _“But that night at the lake…”_

Her heartbeat slowing fractionally, Mulan smiled. _“I can’t go back to forgetting if you keep thinking about it.”_

Yao chuckled. _“Yeah. We should work on that. That’s what we’re supposed to be doing, isn’t it? Getting used to the drift?”_

Mulan nodded. _“Yeah. Yao, you really don’t have a problem…you won’t…”_

_“Nah.”_ His eyes flicked to her collar. “Guardian dragon, huh?”

Mulan felt Mushu peek around her shoulder. He crossed him arms defiantly at Yao but didn’t say anything. “Yeah. I’ve got a lucky cricket somewhere, too.”

“That’s a good sign for the Jade Cricket.”

Mulan was starting to agree. Though she hated herself for it, she had to warn him, had to point out, _“If they find out you knew and hid it from them—”_

_“I know. Forget it.”_ The lake disappeared, replaced with a confused jumble of memories of the recruits practicing, hand-to-hand combat, spear throwing, explosives, and overlaying all of them the image of Mulan sitting smug at the top of the pole, medallions around her neck.

Fighting back tears, Mulan exhaled. “Okay. Let’s practice.”

*****

Though Mulan’s and Yao’s quick realignment was just one piece of evidence of the entire troop’s growing competence, Chi Fu continued to look down on them and Shang. Then the day after Mulan witnessed Chi Fu’s argument with the Captain and awkwardly tried to tell Shang how much he meant—to the whole troop, not just her, of course—came the summons to join the General against a guai in a distant mountain pass. 

The troops packed, got into their mechs (Chi-Fu had a special compartment inside Red Lion, the mech Shang shared with his second in command), and set out, singing songs through their connected comms to mask their nervousness. But when they arrived at the rendezvous point, they found only shattered mech bodies scattered in the disturbed snow.

Shivering from more than cold, Mulan and Yao looked silently over the smoldering remains of the town while Shang and several others spread out to search for survivors. Only Chien-Po came back with something: the General’s drift helmet, distinct in its custom black and gold markings.

Back in their mechs, the troop was making its way through the mountain pass as silently as they could expect, heads downcast as they all remembered the fallen, when the attack came. A fireball exploded in their midst, spraying them with snow and rock but doing little damage. They turned back and saw not one, not two, but three guai charging toward them, hideous in their mottled gray flesh and gaping jaws, electric blues and yellows highlighting their bodies.

“Two category fours and a category five!” Shang cried. Mulan’s heart skipped at the report. “Retreat to higher ground!”

They ran, but Mulan couldn’t forget the murderous intent in the guais’ eyes, how fast they closed the distance between them and the mechs, their powerful bodies, the brave but untested men around her she’d come to call friends. _“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”_

_“I think you’re crazy!”_

_“We have to do_ something _!”_

They had reached the highest ground, the troops readying their mechs with the available weaponry. Mulan and Yao drew their swords. “Fight to the last man,” Shang said, the command in his voice bolstering them all. “If we die, we die with honor.”

Mulan and Yao glanced at each other. Without a word, they sheathed their swords and ran out. _Toward_ the guai.

“Jade Cricket! Get back here!” They ignored their Captain. 

“Uh, Mulan, what the heck are you doing?” Mulan ignored Mushu too. The giant guai were so close now she could see their beady eyes. Two trailed the massive one that must be the category five. 

_“Got to get the right spot…”_ Mulan started.

_“…find the right angle,”_ Yao finished. Their drift was so strong they barely had to form actual words to communicate with each other. They knelt in the snow, took aim, and charged their cannon.

Another fireball knocked them down. Mulan grunted against the impact, the sensors going haywire before stabilizing. Quickly they re-aimed, the category five only yards away, and fired.

With an air-shattering _crack_ the missile whooshed past the guai’s head and toward the snowy mountaintop. Mulan had just a moment to enjoy the satisfaction of the explosion before the guai rammed them, slicing through Jade Cricket’s left side. Mulan cried out but they righted themselves, shoved the guai so that it tumbled into the other two, turned, and ran.

“Take cover!” Mulan couldn’t tell if she or Yao or both of them had yelled out, but they grabbed Red Lion’s arm and hauled it back from where it had followed them. The rumbling of an avalanche sounded behind them, and she could feel the ground vibrating under their massive feet. The other mechs had disappeared from view, but Jade Cricket and Red Lion didn’t reach cover before the snow overtook them. Mulan felt Red Lion ripped from her grasp. “No!” she cried, just as Red Lion disappeared over the cliffside.

Without hesitation, Jade Cricket dove after it.

They grabbed Red Lion and shot a grappling hook back up toward the others, praying someone would see and catch it. The heavy mech bodies spiraled down, down, the ground hidden by the sea of snow around them but surely rising fast to meet them, to shatter their bodies into nothing more than scrap parts. And then they jerked to a stop, Yao grunting from the wrenching pain in his right shoulder.

Mulan caught her breath, hardly daring to believe they were still alive. She felt them being pulled up, up, and then they were past the lip of the cliff. A couple of mechs hauled Red Lion to safety while the ones pulling the grappling hook lifted Jade Cricket the rest of the way. Body shaking, Mulan nevertheless managed to disengage from the station.

She and Yao walked out into the bright sunlight to cheers. “To Jade Cricket, the bravest of us all!” She smiled at Yao and would have playfully punched him if he hadn’t been holding his shoulder so tightly.

Shang made his way over to them. Behind him Mulan could see Chi Fu stumbling out of Red Lion looking like he was about to throw up. She almost tried to share the image with Yao before remembering they weren’t in the drift right now, so instead she turned her attention back to Shang.

“That was reckless and completely disobedient,” Shang reprimanded. The jubilance Mulan had been feeling faded. “However”—Shang looked over his shoulder to the expanse of white on what otherwise would likely have been the troops’ graveyard—“you saved us all. And for that we owe you our lives.” And he bowed to them.

Mulan and Yao exchanged a wide-eyed glance. “We are honored to serve you,” Yao said, bowing in return. Mulan moved to join him, but a sudden searing in her side made her gasp and fall to the ground instead.

Cries erupted around her. “Ping?” “Ping!” Her fingers felt sticky, and her vision faded. All she remembered before blackness overtook her were hands steadying her and Shang’s lips telling her to hold on.

*****

When Mulan woke, she ached all over, but she felt warm. She wanted to snuggle back down into the blankets and fall asleep again, but the swishing of a tent flap and a rush of cold air alerted her to the presence of someone else. She saw Shang, and the feeling of warmth infused her anew. She sat up, smiling, and realized too late as the blanket fell away what it had been hiding.

Shang’s grim expression pierced her. She tried to explain, wishing it could be as easy as it was when she drifted with Yao, but Chi Fu appeared at the entrance. Expressing his shock and disgust, everything Mulan had feared upon being discovered, he dragged her out into the cold and bared her secret to the entire troop before casting her into the snow as if she were diseased.

“My name is Mulan.” She ground out her explanation between Chi Fu’s accusations. Yao, arm in a sling, came to her side and wrapped her in a blanket with his free hand. She leaned into him, grateful for his support, but pushed him away when Shang unsheathed her sword. “Go,” she said to Yao quietly, never breaking eye contact with her Captain.

“No,” Shang said. He pointed the sword at Yao, who hadn’t moved. “You knew, and you hid her. You are as guilty as she.” And then he dropped the sword at their knees. “A life for a life. The debt is repaid.” The only sound then was the wind whistling through the rocks.

“Clear out,” Shang finally said. Mulan and Yao watched as their friends and comrades cast them confused glances but left without a word. When they were alone, Mulan sagged against him, and together they shivered.

*****

After Mulan had dressed and they somehow managed to get a small fire started, Mulan said, “I’m sorry. I never meant to drag you into this.”

“C’mon, Pi…I mean, Mulan.” Yao poked the fire with the stick he’d been cooking a dumpling on a moment ago. “I knew what I was doing.”

“Dishonoring your family and your ancestors?” Mulan said, voice bitter.

“Nah. It was an honor fighting with you. We kicked butt.”

Despite herself, Mulan felt her lips quirking. “At first I just wanted to save my father. But fighting, and then getting into the mech?” She frowned, formulating her thoughts before continuing, “It felt right. I wanted to prove myself, prove I was worthy of something. But I was wrong.”

Yao pointed the stick at her. “We saved them all. Including the Captain and that lily-livered advisor. That’s worth something.”

She studied him for a long moment. The doubt hadn’t disappeared at his words, but the shame lessened somewhat. “Thanks, Yao.”

He shrugged. “What are friends for?”

Mulan smiled, but before she could respond, they heard a mighty roar echo through the mountain. Eyes wide, they scrambled up to a vantage point.

To their horror, down in the valley below them, they saw a wide swathe of snow shifting and falling as something huge rose from its depths. It shook, revealing gray rocklike skin streaked with yellow and a jutting blocky head perfect for ramming. The category five had survived.

“We have to warn them,” Mulan started. “They’ll be celebrating the defeat…”

“…and nowhere near their mech suits,” Yao finished. “But I can’t pilot Jade Cricket like this.” He pointed to his bandaged arm.

Mulan remembered the information from their training, that piloting solo could cost them their lives. “Maybe not fully. But at least enough to get it moving. Are you willing to try”—her eyes glinted with mischief—“or are you too afraid?”

“Okay, tough guy, you’ll see how well I can try. Let’s go.”

*****

Mulan knew everyone could see them long before Jade Cricket actually arrived at the palace steps. Unfortunately they had no way of projecting any communication, so they had to make their way slowly through the city, taking care not to step on any fleeing bodies or bump into any buildings. By the time they stepped into the square, the parade had stopped, the dragon dance still and their comrades staring up at them warily.

Unhooking herself from her station, Mulan opened the entrance and stepped onto the narrow platform to yell down to Shang. “The category five is alive! Everyone has to get into their mechs to head it off before it gets here!” She waved her arms to emphasize the urgency of the situation.

The troops shifted uneasily, but Shang motioned them to be silent. He stared up at her with a frown until, exasperated, she called, “You trusted Ping. Why is Mulan any different?”

Shang opened his mouth, but then Yao called out frantically from his station, “Mulan, look out!” Something crashed into Jade Cricket, flinging Mulan from the platform and into the open air. She screamed as she tumbled straight toward the hard palace steps.

Her body smashed into something softer than she expected. Breathing heavily, mentally checking herself for any broken bones and finding only bruises, she looked down and found Shang between her and the ground. “Are you all right?” she asked, scrambling off him and offering him a hand.

He took it and stood, rubbing his back. “I should be asking you that.” A rumble followed by shrieks made them look toward the city’s edge. The category five towered over the wall, then crushed its way through.

Mulan considered the options. The troops were nowhere in sight, presumably heading for their mechs. “They’ll never make it in time,” she murmured. She headed back toward the fallen Jade Cricket, the fireball the guai had thrown lying next to it and setting the nearby houses on fire.

“Where are you going?” Shang called after her.

She turned and jogged backwards. “I have to do _something_!”

He looked like he wanted to protest, but he simply shook his head and said, “Be careful,” before running off into the city.

Mulan scrambled her way into the mech’s chamber. “Yao!” she cried, relieved to see him still tethered to his station and looking up to her, alert and ready.

“You’re alive!” He stood, the wrinkles in his face smoothing.

She started hooking herself back in. “Not for long unless we can delay that thing long enough for the others to arrive.”

“My arm hasn’t healed in the last five minutes.”

She stuck on her helmet. _“We have no choice, tough guy.”_

Together they stood up in Jade Cricket and faced the guai. Mulan picked up the fireball and swung around and around to build momentum, finally chucking it into the guai’s head. It roared and faced them, looking angry but undamaged. Destroying everything in its path, it came for them.

Mulan and Yao thought fast. They would never defeat a category five on their own, let alone with a useless arm. It would break them to pieces in a second. They whirled, Mulan picked up the long fabric from the abandoned dragon costume, and they turned back just in time to sidestep from the guai’s attack and fling the fabric over its face.

Blinded, the guai stumbled into the palace stairs, sending chunks of stone flying. Jade Cricket launched itself onto the guai’s neck, planting its knees on either side to pin down the struggling form. Raising her arm, Mulan extended her sword and thrust it into the guai’s skull.

It roared again and twisted violently, but Mulan sliced down, splitting the gigantic head and spilling blue blood over the steps. Finally, just as they felt the vibrations of the other mechs arriving to the square, the guai stopped moving.

Panting, sweating, Mulan and Yao looked at each other, and started to laugh.

*****

Later that night, after the Emperor himself had honored Mulan and Yao for saving the city, they sat with the rest of their comrades in a nearby tea shop, barely able to hear their own thoughts amid the roar of celebration. Food and drinks continually refilled in front of them, and Yao took full advantage. Mulan also found herself ravenous and consumed bowl after bowl of noodles, chatting with the trainees easily as if she had never hidden her true self.

Shang walked in after Mulan had finally pushed away a full bowl of noodles and was sipping tea. The room quieted to a murmur and then slowly resumed its volume as Shang made his way over to Mulan and Yao. “Congratulations,” he said. “May I sit?”

Mulan raised her eyebrows but nodded. “I hear congratulations are in order for you too, General.”

A grimace flashed across Shang’s face before it settled into a tired smile. “Thank you.” They sat awkwardly, then, in silence for a few minutes, Mulan focusing on her tea, Yao tearing into a bowl of rice and fish. “It’s not over,” Shang announced. “We…you eliminated these guai, but they’re not the first, and we doubt they’ll be the last.” He paused. 

“Yes?” Mulan prodded.

Shang exhaled and ran a hand over his hair. “You do good work,” he said, gaze locked intently with Mulan’s. Yao shifted to spear a dumpling from a platter, and Shang looked at him. “Both of you. China needs you.”

“You mean you personally need Mulan,” Yao muttered. Mulan kicked him under the table, and Shang glared at him as he chuckled. Mulan noticed, however, that Shang’s cheeks turned pink, and she felt her own face flushing.

Shang cleared his throat. “Will you continue piloting Jade Cricket?”

“Lucky cricket,” Yao said, looking at Mulan.

She already knew how they would respond, but she wanted to keep her General on his toes. “We’ll think about it.” And she poured herself another cup of tea.


End file.
